ALSO VISIT

The Miami Herald is reporting that the latest list of felons the Florida state government is requesting local elections officials "purge" from lists of registered voters contains more than 2,000 names of people who are legally eligible to vote. In the aftermath of the 2000 election, various investigators found that the Florida government had unlawfully denied legal voters access to the polls, through a similar process. A series of Salon articles by award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast detail the research behind the specific numbers.

Errors in the "matching" of voters' names to lists of felons came in waves: first it was found that at least 7,000 innocent voters had their names unjustly erased from registration rolls. Then, another 2,834 eligible voters were "purged" by the state's elections officials. Further investigations yet another 7,000 innocent citizens stripped of voting rights due to error-filled purge lists. And finally, and most impressively, Palast reported that a fourth group of at least 40,000 names were erroneously listed as matching felons who had been legally deprived of voting rights.

There were actual court orders requiring that the Governor's office and the Secretary of State cease intervening in the elections process to rid the registration rolls of so many voters. Reports also indicated that the state had specifically ordered officials to fight the registration of eligible voters who were not legally barred from voting in Florida. The state simply claimed throughout that it had misunderstood court rulings and interpreted the law differently than its opponents.

Errors in the lists produced by Choicepoint DBT under contract for the state were blamed entirely on the company, though the state had been repeatedly notified by the company that the State was using parameters which were certain to create erroneous matches. Now, the process appears to be in full swing all over again.

The Miami Herald has found that "at least 2,119 people on the list had received clemency and were eligible to vote." That is only one group of people erroneously listed for the purge, found using only one standard, on only one list. Due to ongoing concern over the accuracy of the purge process, a Florida court ordered the State to produce and release copies of its lists, so they could be independently verified.

Unfortunately, many elections officials across the country have said that it is routine to find that thousands of voters were either unable to vote or would later have ballots disqualified for formalities, confusion or technical glitches. The argument is that with millions of voters, a few thousand don't make a big difference. When the recounts were halted, Bush won Florida by 537 votes. The Florida statutes clearly defined that margin as so narrow it would trigger automatic recounts. So the thousands of voters who may be unlawfully erased from voting lists matter not only as a matter of rights, law and principle; they matter enough to decide the Presidency.

State officials have argued that the list is only "the beginning of the process", and that local officials will be charged with deciding who on the list is an actual felon barred from voting, and who may have had their voting rights restored, or who is in fact an innocent citizen with no criminal record at all. The State had singled out at least 300 names which might be erroneously listed, according to the Herald article. [For more: Salon]